Rich Archbold: Long Beach couple has me Tarzan, you Jane relationship

You may know them as mild-mannered Jim and Vicki Sullos, but beneath their quiet exteriors lies the fantasy world of Tarzan and Jane.

"Except for the leopard loin cloth, Jim and I have had pretty much a Tarzan/Jane relationship for 40 years," Vicki said gleefully from their home in Bixby Hill. "He beats on his chest, and I respond with my point of view, which usually prevails."

Jim smiles at his wife's characterization of their married life.

The Sulloses are having a little fun at Tarzan's expense, but Jim is no nonsense in his late-in-life, second career as caretaker of the literary legacy and business empire of Tarzan's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In his first job as a longtime accountant and managing partner with the powerhouse Long Beach accounting firm Windes and McClaughry, it would have been hard for Jim to imagine that he one day would be making deals and decisions affecting the image and business potential of one of the superstars of pop culture and literature.

After mandatory retirement from Windes and McClaughry, Jim became president of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. on May 1, 2008.

"It's the best job in the world, but it's a killer commute," Jim said. Three or four days a week, Jim makes the daily 1 1/2-hour trip each way to his ERB office in, where else, Tarzana, the city Burroughs carved out from a 555-acre ranch he bought in 1919.

Jim's office is in the same Spanish-style bungalow built by Burroughs and set back from Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. The office is filled with Burroughs' memorabilia, including the author's walnut desk decorated with Moorish figures.

It's like living in another world for Jim, who was born and raised in Long Beach, where he graduated from Poly High School. He became a Long Beach community leader active on many boards and nonprofit organizations and is chairman of the board of International City Bank.

His wife also is active with the Assistance League of Long Beach.

"My ERB job is exciting and really interesting," Sullos said as he outlined details for the Tarzan Centennial Commemorative celebration to be held Aug. 16-18 at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel in Woodland Hills next door to Tarzana.

A keystone of the celebration will be the Dum Dum Convention, the annual fan event of the Burroughs Bibliophiles, a nonprofit organization formed 60 years ago to further the literary legacy of the most prolific author of the 20th Century. Burroughs wrote more than 70 novels and 40 short stories and is referred to as the Master of Adventure and the Grandfather of Science Fiction.

Burroughs was a failure at every job he held until he struck gold with his stories. He was a railroad watchman, a Sears manager and a stationery store owner, among other endeavors.

In 1912, at age 37, Burroughs decided that his latest job as a pencil sharpener salesman wasn't bringing in enough money to support a wife, two children and a baby on the way. He had been reading stories in pulp fiction magazines and figured he could write stories better than those and actually get paid for them.

He received $400 for his first novel, "Under the Moons of Mars," written under the pseudonym, Normal Bean, because he wanted this science fiction story to be more credible if written by a "normal" person.

Later in 1912, he wrote another novel, this time under his real name, about a boy who grows up to be "Tarzan of the Apes." He received $700 for this story, which ran in All-Story magazine.

"The rest is history," Sullos said. "It's estimated that over 100 million copies of his books have been published around the world, and with books, movies, comic books, comic strips and merchandise, he reached over a billion people at his peak."

Burroughs, who never expected his writing to amount to much, was overwhelmed by the positive response he got from his early stories. In 1923 he did a very smart thing. He had the foresight to start Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. to protect the copyright of his literary creations and to market them as he and his family wanted.

Sullos' path to Tarzan was much different.

After graduating from Occidental College and Columbia University, Sullos started working "as a baby accountant" for Windes and McClaughry in 1960. By coincidence, one of Windes and McClaughry's accounts was ERB Inc. and guess who was assigned to that account? Young Jim Sullos. When he retired from Windes and McClaughry, it was a relatively easy decision by the Burroughs family to put him in charge of ERB.

Now, it is Sullos' job to not only protect the copyright and legacy of the Tarzan name, but also to expand on his popularity. He spends a lot of time dealing with copyright issues and negotiating contracts for and licenses for everything from Tarzan hats to video games in Las Vegas casinos, one of the most popular new games of its kind on the market.

He also is fiercely aggressive in stopping "infringers," those people who want to use the Burroughs creations illegally.

"The Internet has helped us worldwide to discover people who are violating our copyright," Sullos said. "We've gone after some people making pornographic films using the Tarzan name."

"Tarzan has become a big international business, and different copyright laws in different countries makes our job more difficult," he said. "For instance, there's Tarzan soap in India, Tarzan fertilizer in Pakistan and Tarzan cosmetics in South Korea, just to name a few."

Sullos said if you want to use the Tarzan name for anything, you have to follow various rules instituted by ERB.

Sullos' job is a demanding one. He's working on so many projects it's hard to understand how he has time for all of them. Sullos is working now on the release of a new book, "Jane, the Woman Who Loved Tarzan," by Robin Maxwell. Other Tarzan books, written by Andy Briggs for a young audience in England, soon will be published in the United States. And then there are more movies to plan and, oh yes, the centennial celebration in two weeks.

The three-day centennial event will feature a convention with fans, collectors, actors, authors and artists. A special guest speaker at the dinner Aug. 18 will be Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Goodall credits Burroughs' "Tarzan of the Apes" novel and other stories as the source of her lifelong interest in primates. She began reading Tarzan stories when she was 11.

Sullos said ERB also will be unveiling newly commissioned statues of Tarzan in fighting garb, done by artist Joe DeVito. The painted version will sell for $225, the bronze version for $425. If you would like a solid bronze statue, you can buy one for $7,500, but there are only 10 of those, so move fast.

In other Tarzan news, Sullos said the U.S. Postal Service will unveil an Edgar Rice Burroughs commemorative stamp Aug. 17 at 11:30 a.m. at the Tarzana Community & Cultural Center, 19130 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana.

All of these activities should guarantee that the famous Ape Man will continue swinging from the vines with the help of Jim Sullos and his Jane, Vicki.